Honors Research

Michelle Meyer Department of Economics

Madison College July 20, 2020 

Abstract 

Intensified sensitivity toward climate change is essential in order for the economy and our overused natural resources to stabilize, securing a future earth for our nation’s diverse humanity. Along with this understanding, private sectors will have the motivation and collective power to call on public officials to change policies and raise standards. As a developed nation, the U.S. is capable of leading a global effort to safeguard against the effects of global warming. If our nation’s leaders need more reason than the intrinsic value of the environment, they can look to the impacts of climate change on our economy. Small businesses, entrepreneurs and individuals should be able to benefit from their efforts to mitigate global warming effects and prepare for sustainable growth. U.S. capitalists have a choice to continue down a path of negligence or adapt business practices toward risk mitigation. If capitalism continues to ignore the calamity of global warming, populations will be displaced, pollution densities will rise, economic gaps will widen, and humanity will reach a world-wide wartime desperation. The goal of this paper is multidisciplinary: To layout the framework of the science, investigate the responsibility of capitalism, identify the impacts of global warming on the U.S. and highlight possible and current local level climate change mitigation, based on economic theory and risk management. 

A fundamental understanding of atmospheric science is necessary if the U.S. is going to lessen climatechange caused effects. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) compares the atmosphere of earth to a greenhouse, dependent on energy from the sun which is transformed to heat in an exchange between the earth and the atmosphere (NASA, 2020). These exchanges are affected by atmospheric conditions. Greenhouse gasses, including water vapor (H2O), nitrous oxide (N2O), methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2), affect the rate of heat retention within the earth’s atmosphere (NASA, 2020). The increase in greenhouse gases can be directly related to human activities, such as the burning of fossil fuels, clearing of land, and industrialization processes related to modernization (NASA, 2020). The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a group of 1,300 independent scientific experts, reports the last three decades have all been substantially warmer than the previous decade, recording the warmest 30-year period of the last 1,400 years (IPCC, 2014).